Tag: National Lampoon’s Vacation

Episode 031

– Sunday was my wife’s birthday. And Wednesday was my birthday; two Leo’s together; it works, but we do have our moments of wanting to be king of the jungle.

– Rain cooled things off here; I want the temps to get back up to low 90’s again; i don’t mind a little rain every so often, but it pours all at once and that’s just a waste of good water.

News – Story 1: San Diego Comic-Con sues Salt Lake Comic Con

– For years, San Diego was the only Comic-Con gig going; people flocked to that city in droves and in costume to show their geek side and love of fictional lore; over the years, other cities started having their own Comic Con shows; this year, Salt Lake Comic Con (minus the dash in the name) drove a ad-laced car around the San Diego Convention Center to promote their upcoming show here in Salt Lake on September 4-6th; The San Diego officials got wind of this; sent a cease and desist notice to change the name; Salt Lake dug in their heels; lawsuit filed; personally, I don’t see what the conflict is unless San Diego wants to start taking their brand to every city; they are San Diego Comic-Con (with the dash); so many other Comic Con shows out there; will San Diego sue them as well and force them to change their names?; this pissing match just takes away from the fans and their love of the characters created and celebrated.
– Link to article: San Diego Comic-Con suing Salt Lake Comic Con over name

– August 16th is the last day the coaster will host riders; the coaster opened in 1978 as the tallest and fastest in the world; I rode this ride for the first time in 1983; it was my second visit to the Valencia, CA amusement park; the coaster was featured in the 1983 movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation”; many years later, Six Flags is wanting to reinvent the area where the ride has been for the last 36 years; always sad when a ride like this closes down; many fans still like this ride and it’s one that will last in the memories of thrill ride seekers.
– Link to article: Six Flags to close Colossus roller coaster in August

News – Story 3: MTV celebrates 33 years since beginning

– the music channel began broadcasting on August 1, 1981 the first video ever played was “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles; the original VJ’s were: Martha Quinn, J.J. Jackson, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood and Alan Hunter; most are DJs on SiriusXM; the concept of music videos took off and changed the world of music; putting faces to the voices; Duran Duran was one of the bands to really get into making music videos; so was Michael Jackson; they became more than just playing the song against a video; short films for songs like “Thriller”; I loved MTV and watched it a lot during it’s early days; I had just graduated from high school; had a friend who had cable TV; two boxes – one for HBO and the other for cable channels; changed how TV is viewed; now MTV barely plays anything related to music; most music videos are on VEVO or Yahoo!; one day, that might change again.
– Link to article: Happy Birthday, MTV! 33 years ago today we got our MTV

RANT: Compete, Don’t Take Down Other Companies

– a common ideal is to spend oodles of money to take down your competition; it’s oil companies trying to kill solar and wind power; it’s taxi companies trying to take down Uber and Lyft ride service; it’s the car dealers trying to keep companies like Tesla from offering a different and innovative way of selling their electric cars; I’m not against capitalism, but I wish those who lead these companies and organizations would learn what competition is; if you are that weak of a business where you feel threatened by new and innovative companies reinventing your trade, then I feel bad for you; you can’t be the only game in town; businesses like Circuit City found that out when they tried to shut down every one of their competitors; they are now out of business; don’t fight, join; taxi companies should make an app and learn what GPS is and use it to gain new customers; oil companies should be spending their lobbying money getting into the wind and solar business.
– Link to article: Salt Lake slaps rideshare drivers with $6,500 fines

SHAMELESS PLUG: Calling Time on the phone

– Growing up in the 70’s, if you wanted an exact notification of what time it was, you would simply pick up the dial phone and call 853-1212 and a recorded message would say: “At the tone, the time will be… 8:12 and 20 seconds…” and then a loud “BEEP”; it repeated this every 10 seconds; at the top of the minute, it would replace the seconds count with “exactly”; I’m not sure what parts of the country had this, but I grew up in Southern Calif and this was in every area code that you could dial the 853 or 767 number; this went away in August 2007; so no longer can you check the time by dialing a phone number; most of us have cell phones that constantly sync the correct time over the wireless network.
Link to article: Time of the Day Calling It Quits